


Faller

by Lynae



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Amnesia, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt, Gen, I'm bad at writing Lusamine, Memory Loss, Pokemon Battle, Time Skips, Ultra Space, events before the game, it says multiple OCs but trust me there's only one, spoilers obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-07-03 15:31:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15821778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lynae/pseuds/Lynae
Summary: She wakes up in an empty white room with nothing in her memory except the fact that she is a Pokemon Trainer. They tell her this place is called Aether Paradise.





	1. Someone

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! This is a 4-part series, but the quality and style of each section might vary as I've written it sporadically over the past two years. I hope you enjoy!

I don't understand. Who am I? 

What am I? 

I cradled my head in my hands, pain pulsating, throbbing, thudding, through my brain. My shaking hands could not recognize my own body, as if I existed outside of it, and clawed at the rough patches of flaking, dead skin that covered what could have once been a face. Through the pain, I barely breathed out words, somehow vaguely understanding that someone else existed, someone who required an answer.

"My name is... My name is... Ahh... Agh. I'm sorry, I can't tell you right now." 

"That's fine, you've just been through a terrible ordeal. Take all the time you need to rest." She turned to leave, and after a few moments I heard the door close behind her. 

I looked around, but I could not explain my surroundings. A room of glass? Marble? All I could discern was the endless, pristine whiteness, soft and fuzzy as if everything lay in the distance, out of reach, impossible to reach. I couldn't focus on anything, not even the mirage-like bedposts by my feet, not even my own fingers. I worried that this haziness was not a result of my exhaustion but a permanent infliction caused by it. 

I whispered to the shimmering, shivering white, "My name is... My name is..." 

But it didn't answer me. Instead, it coated my eyelids, leaving them heavy, glued shut. Maybe I needed to start with a simpler truth. I couldn't think of one before I drifted off to sleep. 

~~

I awoke, shivering and covered in a cold sweat. The soft sheets once pulled over me had vanished, now heaped on the floor. But the room had not changed: still foggy, white and inexplicable. 

"I...!" 

I choked, my throat dry and my cracked lips burst into bloody rips. I quickly tried to wet them, but to no avail. My mouth was full of sand, sun-baked and searing like a desert. The simple truth I had sought, now so clear to me, simply could not escape from me.

Right at that moment, she walked in, almost as if she knew. From my bed I struggled to make out even her silhouette in the doorway, but, as I turned my head ever so slightly on the pillow, I recognized that she carried a tray bearing a glass of water and some other food. Her cheery tone made her smile evident, even through the mist.

"So you're awake now," she said warmly, "and I assume you want something to drink?" 

Heels clicked on what sounded like metal as she moved towards me, still prone and drowning in the pain of my dehydration.

Setting the tray on the floor first, she reached out a hand to me. I didn't understand the gesture at first, but my hand, shaking and sweaty, slowly reached for hers and fell lifelessly out of her grasp. She sighed patiently and picked up my hand from the bed, hoisting me up into a sitting position, propped up against the cold metal bed frame. Then, she slowly handed me the cup of water, not daring to let go of it until I had grasped it tightly with both hands and she felt sure I would not spill it over myself. 

Once I had drained the cup, I could no longer hold it back, my words tumbling out in a rush. 

"I was a trainer. That's easy to remember. Where are my-- Do you--" 

Clearly taken aback by this information, the woman turned her head towards the ceiling and in an ominous tone of voice said: "They're looking at your Pokemon now."

"That's a relief." 

She sighed in a disconcertingly different way from the first time. Until now, she had maintained a determined lightheartedness about her, and I could not for the life of me understand why it faltered now. Behind her horn-rimmed glasses, a shadow overtook her sensitive eyes.

But that only lasted a second. She smiled again.

"Oh, I almost forgot. You can call me Ms. Wicke, alright? I'll help you if you need anything," she said sweetly. Maybe the sweetness came from the pervading smell of sugary perfume that emanated from her. 

I nodded readily, thinking only about seeing my Pokemon again. A quiet voice in the back of my head hoped beyond hope that seeing them would elicit my name from me, maybe. 

"When-- when will I see my Pokemon, please?" My plea came out a little strained, and Ms. Wicke responded by picking up the bowl of soup prepared for me and pushing it into my hands. 

"You're in no condition to see them right now, honey. Once you eat and get a bit more rest, I think your Pokemon will be done resting too." 

The bowl felt a little cold, but I couldn't reject anything at the moment. I lifted the bowl to my lips and drank, ignoring the spoon outright, but not merely out of a lack of courtesy. Having observed my current condition, I lacked confidence in my motor skills, even in a task as simple as lifting a spoon to my lips. Once the bowl was empty, Ms. Wicke smiled, nodded encouragingly, and placed the bowl back onto the tray. After reaching inside one of the pockets in her long white coat, she deposited a bag of some sweet-smelling bread onto my lap.

"These are some malasadas. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they're quite delicious. Take a bit more time to relax, alright dear? I'll be back soon." 

Her heels clicked away on the white metal, and she disappeared. 

Again, I was left alone. I fumbled to pull a piece out of the warm bag of mala-somethings in my lap, placing it in my mouth. It nearly dissolved on my tongue in a sweet mass of sugar, and suddenly I felt more alert than I had in a very long time.

I put my foot on the floor.

I realized that I had no shoes as soon I made contact with the piercing cold metal underneath me and recoiled, but I did not move back into the comfort of my bed. I was more disciplined than this; I had journeyed this far, this one single, endlessly far step, and I would not let minor discomfort stop me.

My first instinct was to find the exit, but what with my foggy reckoning of the room, I couldn't even properly find the walls. The white blended together in my sights, and it swallowed me, nulling my feeble mind, unable to understand. So I reached my arm forth-- I realized that too was unclothed-- and walked forward like a blind man, waiting to collide into a wall, a pole, the door.

Instead of the cold metal for which I had braced myself, my fingertips discovered glass. I bent closer, finding that, beyond my hand fogging up the glass with its warmth, there sat a collection of test tubes with softly glowing contents. If I had not pressed my face right up to them, I would have imagined that their light might have been simply refracted from elsewhere. The ethereal radiance, however, quivered inside the tubes, somehow contained. I desperately pressed even closer to understand: was this a bottle of light, or shining fluid?

But then my face hit the glass rather hard-- I must still not have been able to properly judge distance. I backed up hastily, remembering that Ms. Wicke most likely had some method of monitoring this room, and while I could take a scolding for leaving the room, I did not want to get in trouble for examining those vials. Almost instinctively, I understood them to be objects of secrecy and danger. I stepped back, keeping my fingers pressed against the wall, and began to make my way along the surface.

I reasoned that the door would make itself known to my sense of touch before my sight, but I kept feeling glass, cold, smooth glass, sliding smoothly along under my fingertips. I felt as though I surely must have walked the whole perimeter of the room.

Then, I found it. A heavy steel door... with no clear doorknob.

I stood back and squinted at it, wondering if my hands had simply glanced over the handle as I examined it. But no, the door was made cleanly from a single sheet of metal. A fingerprint detector seemed to be its opening mechanism, and I had no way to thwart a computer.

But then, I no longer needed to overcome the door.

Because someone walked in. And it was not Ms. Wicke.

The man who had walked in screamed. I, in turn, shrieked at the noise, cowering and covering my ears like a startled child. 

"Do you have no decency? In the name of!" 

His shouting carried past the fingers jammed in my ears, but it sounded more embarrassed than upset. I looked down to where he had been staring; at best, I could say that the most offensive parts of me were covered, but that was about it. I doubted that Ms. Wicke had dressed me in such a manner, because the two pieces of white cloth tied around my midriff and hips respectively seemed unnaturally primitive, especially for her. 

Looking back up, I noticed that the man had turned away, but I had not gotten a clear glimpse of his face. His back now faced me, and his black coat contrasted starkly with everything else around me, jarring my sight. 

"Um, I'm sorry? I didn't even notice, I was just--" 

"Oh really, I don't think anyone else alive wouldn't notice that they're basically naked, don't you think?" I could feel his sneer searing into the wall that he now faced. 

I bit my lip, not knowing what I could say to this man. I settled for something less offensive: "I was a bit more focused on figuring out where I am, sir."

"Sir?" He laughed, throwing back his head. "I'm no sir. Besides, it's pretty obvious where you are. This is Aether Paradise." 

"Aether... Paradise?"

"Do you live under a rock or did your fall really knock you up that hard?" He still faced the wall with his back turned to me, but I felt his sarcasm like a miasma on the surgical atmosphere.

At his words, I became aware that my fists had clenched and blood had flooded out of my cold white fingers. I caught myself from saying, again, something too offensive, especially as I knew he probably did not mean to provoke me, but it had become increasingly difficult. My venomous words burned my tongue.

"I don't even remember my name. How should I be expected to know where I am?!"

His shoulders hitched as though he had stopped breathing. He spun on his heel and faced me again, piercing me through with bright green eyes. A look of forced calm covered the spot where just moments ago there most certainly played sardonic mirth. His features seemed to lend themselves to mockery, and I easily imagined what his smirk would have looked like.

He shook his head and, scandalized again by my appearance, hastily looked at the floor, a slight flush creeping up his face. "Do you know what happened to you?"

My legs turned into thin pieces of pencil lead. My brain froze, oblivious to my predicament. My eyes widened but couldn't see anything but swirling mist. It seemed such a simple question. Why... why couldn't I... answer?

"Young master Gladion, what are you doing here?"

Ms. Wicke. She had arrived to save me.

"Oh, um, I heard a disturbance from next door. Who even is this person?" He waved dismissively at me.

"Captain Acerola reported a person washed up on the shores of her trial site. There was a lack of necessary medical supplies at the House, so her rehabilitation will take place here instead."

I shook my head to try and clear it. Unsure of where to start, I addressed Ms. Wicke, "I'm sorry, I know I should've been resting, but I really wanted to see my partners again, and... I'm sorry. When can I see them again?"

The man called Gladion laughed again, but this time his laugh did not ring with the original sarcasm it once had. It felt strained, yet not forced, as though he laughed in spite of himself. His laugh faded away into silence; Ms. Wicke tried to speak as soon as it vanished, but he overpowered her and said gravely:

"You won't, silly girl."

"Gladion! This is not a joking matter." 

Ms. Wicke's eyes had regained their shadows again, yet the gravity of Gladion's declaration made it clear that he was not joking. Her feeble attempt to cover her grimace brought Gladion to catch my eye and give a knowing, yet telling, glance. 

"Hmph. Lie to her all you want, but it won't work." With that, Gladion strode forcefully from the room. I think he had tried to hide the fact he ran away, but his accelerating footfalls echoed loudly through the outside corridor. 

Ms. Wicke smiled in a self-deprecating way as she heard Gladion vanish. "The young master has been quite contrary lately. Don't worry, it's just him being a teenager." 

As much as I had grown fond of Ms. Wicke, due to her persistence in helping me, I could not bring myself to label Gladion's words as a simple desire to cause trouble. No one could disagree with the severity of his gaze and those green eyes turning hollow, deadened. The thought made me wonder how I looked right now, similarly battling with my emotions. 

Oh, and basically naked. 

"Don't worry, when you're feeling better, you'll certainly see your Pokemon again. Right now," Ms. Wicke presented me with a handful of folded clothing, "you need to get dressed. The President personally picked these out for you. She wants to see you as soon as you feel ready." 

I accepted the clothes gratefully, noticing almost immediately that all the garments were white. There did not seem to be any surfaces for me to set the pile of clothes on, so I shuffled back over to the bed and laid them there. From the pile, I unfolded a white frilly blouse, a pleated skirt, several undergarments and a pair of socks. Tucked under those were white slippers. Ms. Wicke stood in the doorway, watching me struggle to unknot the cloth around my chest before sighing and heading over to undo it herself. 

Once I had been dressed-- a more laborious task than usual-- I sat on my bed and admired the delicate clothing that the 'President' had picked for me. I wondered if these clothes seemed special to her, or their formality had become mundane instead. 

I stared at the fine tendrils of brown hair scattered about on my bed and the floor, obviously from me pulling the blouse over my head, and the sheer quantity worried me but also frightened me enough not to touch my hair any further. I looked back up at the sound of Wicke clearing her throat.

“You look wonderful.” Wicke smiled and laid a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “We will help you get better, I promise that. For now, rest easy. I’ll be back soon.”

I could barely form any words to express my gratitude, but I finally mustered a simple “Thank you for everything.” 

“Of course, dear.” She nodded kindly and walked off, murmuring absentmindedly to herself as she left the room.

Now alone, I laid down on the bed and sighed loudly, exhaling all of the trapped anxiety and confusion built up inside me. Ms. Wicke had told Gladion that I needed rehabilitation, but, for some reason, as the cloudy fog of my migraine snuck back into my mind, I didn't feel particularly like my body was the infirm thing. 

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with her that I needed it, considering my amnesia, but, deep inside, fear festered in my heart. I didn't want to know what had happened to me. 

~~

The days passed uneventfully as I began whatever rehabilitation they required of me. Doctors dressed in white and wearing shiny masks came by often, assisting me in exercises of which I couldn't fully comprehend the purpose, but they seemed to help. After a while in the bright white room of Aether, my body finally functioned adequately. 

The greatest contribution to this, of course: Ms. Wicke. She constantly monitored my improvement and cared for me with motherly tenderness and devotion. She came by almost as frequently as the doctors, checking up on my progress and bringing different notes from the President, which all expressed great excitement at my improving health. Whenever I felt sick, which honestly happened more often than it should have, Ms. Wicke seemed to know instantly, coming in with a treat or a gift to cheer me up. She claimed to not know my preferences-- I couldn't have told her them anyways-- but I loved everything she brought. My bed, still the only fixture in the small white room, soon had a bag of trinkets dangling off one of its metal bedposts.

I could not find a clock or even a sign of passing time, so I stopped trying to figure out the hours that had passed. I instead gauged time by when the doctors and Ms. Wicke came to see me. In the time I had to myself, I either slept or stared at the ceiling-- not as though I could do much else in the empty room. I mostly stared at the ceiling, given how hard it had become to sleep. The lights never went off in the room, and I had not found a light switch, so I woke and slept in the same neverending bright light.

Oh, and not to mention, the unexplainable dreams that I experienced whenever I slept made it pretty hard to sleep too. The dreams never changed in their course: strange, inhuman cries growing ever nearer as I sat, trapped and tied, unable to flee. Every time I awoke, I found myself covered in cold sweat or shaking, having just seen huge black jaws, yearning pale claws. 

I never remembered the things that devoured me in those dreams. I knew that in my dream, I saw their terrible, horrible forms, but when I awoke they became shadowy figures once more. Shadowy figures screaming, crying, hungering, for me.


	2. Her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, thank you for waiting for the second part of Faller!
> 
> I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading.

“Good morning!”

I heard Ms. Wicke’s familiar chipper voice above me. Knowing that she stood right beside my bed, I groaned and stretched ostentatiously, attempting to hide the fact that I had pretended to be peacefully asleep even though I heard the door slid open when she entered. With my face still in the pillow, I loudly yawned, grumbling a pretense of ‘a few more minutes.’

“Honey, it’s time to get up!”

I flipped myself over in bed to see Wicke’s ecstatic smile beaming down on me. It reminded me of the lights the doctors used when examining me, but with none of the piercing cold, more like a radiating blaze. Speaking of the doctors, none of them accompanied her today as they usually did. I rubbed my eyes and sat up in bed, mumbling, “Where’re the doctors?”

“They’re not coming today. The President wants to see you.”

Of the Aether Foundation? I recalled that Ms. Wicke had mentioned several times that the President had taken a special interest in my recovery, but I suppose that it had slipped my mind that the President wanted to personally meet me. I tried to find a reason why such a high-profile person would take interest in me, but the question was too difficult for my groggy mind.

After an awkward silence, I finished buttoning the singular blouse of mine and slid out of bed. Ms. Wicke nodded appreciatively, motioning for me to follow her out into the hallway. Feeling a sudden thrill of excitement, I hurried after her.

The unfathomable door slid open with a gentle touch of Wicke’s fingers. Desperate to escape my confinement, I admittedly had tried to open it myself, imitating the light press of the doctors, Gladion, and Wicke, but the door rejected me every time. But, this time, finally, I stepped out of the bright white room into the hallway beyond.

A slow, pulsating blue glow emanated from glass panels embedded in the silvery steel path, which clinked pleasantly as we walked along it. The sounds reverberated until the glowing depths below swallowed them whole. Compared to my solitary room, the hallway felt much warmer, and, like spring shaking off the frost of winter, I ran forward to walk beside Wicke.

“Um, Ms. Wicke, what kind of, uh, person is the President?”

“Well, the President believes any and every Pokemon is deserving of love-- and has always believed that.”

I nodded pensively, hoping my expression didn’t reveal too much of my immense surprise. Whenever I couldn’t sleep-- pretty often-- and I was lost in thought, I had always imagined the President as a man with a severe, stern brow and glowering eyes: Wicke’s antithesis. A great weight lifted from my chest, and I eventually decided that no matter how the meeting with the President went, I would at the very least not be hated by such a supposedly loving person.

Since I had stopped paying much attention to the surroundings, Wicke gently patted my shoulder to get my attention. “We’re going up now, dear.”

“Up?”

The railings had already risen. A small beep indicated the desired input, and, with a sharp jerk, the platform on which we stood flew upwards. I braced myself against the railings after the sudden lurch, watching steel panels and pipes zoom past in the darkness beyond the platform.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the elevator shuddered to a stop in another bright, white room. But, this wasn’t my cold chamber. Not at all. This room was a high-ceiling, open hall full of people and Pokemon. Just as I turned around to marvel at its sheer size, at least a dozen people walked past, chattering, taking pictures, staring at tablets. Several of them greeted Wicke cordially, and she replied with genial waves and quick salutations.

“Come with me, the President’s office is this way.” Wicke gently tugged on my arm, leading me through the swarm of people. She quickly pulled me past a pair of men wearing shiny masks and deliberating intensely in hushed tones. Yet, before they got out of earshot, I caught some of their conversation, filled with strange, unintelligible terminology.

"We're starting the first Wormhole project soon, as soon as we have harvested enough of the necessary catalyst."

"Is that so? The collection of the catalyst must have been faster than calculated."

Gesturing empathically to the chattering teenagers going in the opposite direction, Wicke coughed slightly to catch my attention: “These visitors have come to Aether Paradise to see all of our conservation facilities, if that's what you were wondering.”

I stopped attempting to listen into the men's conversation and focused back onto Wicke. I muttered something to pretend I hadn't been inattentive. "Conservation?"

“Yes, our region is home to lots of rare Pokemon found nowhere else in the world. The Aether Foundation works to ensure that these Pokemon are protected, so people from all over the world and even future generations can see them. We take care of hurt wild Pokemon here, and then we release them back into their natural habitats once they’ve recovered to ensure the balance of the ecosystem.”

I smiled and nodded at such a noble cause. “That sounds wonderful.” In the back of my mind, I realized that the Aether Foundation would have also taken great care of my own Pokemon, and yet another weight lifted from my chest.

Steered by Wicke, I suddenly found myself standing in front of a large door. The light coming from beyond blinded me for a second, but, feeling the sudden blast of a wall of warmth, I felt compelled to go towards it. I stepped forward confidently.

At once, I instinctively shielded my eyes, temporarily dazed by the harsh light. Before I even opened them again, however, a multitude of unfamiliar stimuli assailed my senses. A faint hint of salty air wafted in the sultry breeze; the soft rustling of leaves mixed with the slow crashing of the waves.

I blinked rapidly. The rush of color overwhelmed me, and I unsuccessfully tried to hide a gasp.

Beyond the color of my own hair, I rarely saw any color during my stay in the white chamber. Now, a stunning blue spread over me without even a sign of clouds. The sky looked soft, like the melting sweetness of a malasada, and extended endlessly all around, no matter which way I turned. It seemed to match the color of the placid sea, or maybe it was the other way around, because the water flowed so smoothly and effortlessly that its tranquil surface shimmered like a mirror. The reflections off of the water sparkled as if the waves were full of dazzling diamonds and gleaming gold.

Verdant trees, trimmed to perfectly match one another in shape and size, lined a path littered with exotic flowers blooming and perfuming the air. Each one-- shockingly red, enchantingly purple, delicately pink, vibrantly yellow-- seemed to sit exactly in the center of its own pool of sunlight shining through the swaying branches.

And, as the centerpiece of this true paradise, there stood a white mansion. Upsettingly, my mind tried to compare it with something familiar that I could not remember, but its style did seem to invoke some sort of fuzzy, indistinct image. Ornate black rails shrouded the windows from indecent gaze, and carved black pillars framed an imposing door. Its palatial size bore over the gardens, the polished stone juxtaposed with the steel foundation as if the mansion had fallen onto Aether Paradise from some different age.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“So beautiful.”

~~

“This is a flower from Melemele Island. It’s famous for its bright colors.”

Wicke narrated somewhere above my head. Though she had reiterated several times that the President would not like to be kept waiting, she nonetheless allowed me to stop constantly along the garden path to examine the plant life. Full of childlike wonderment, I hurried from one bush to the next, drinking in the beauty of the flowers like a bug Pokemon would their nectar.

“Having fun with your babysitting, Wicke?”

A cruel, drawling voice called from down the tree-lined way. The speaker stood in the shadows, but from his silhouette and stance, I could already see his aggressive arrogance.

Wicke’s response, uncharacteristically sharp and unlike her usual soft tones, made me flinch noticeably.

“Hello, Mr. Faba. I see that you’re quick to criticize today,” she shook her head and sighed, “but must I remind you that the President chose me over you for this task?”

Faba stepped forcefully towards Ms. Wicke, the shadows disappearing to reveal his cruel smirk. He tossed his head dismissively towards Wicke, then fixed that leer onto me, still crouched by the yellow flowers.

“You.”

The clear contempt in his low growl stung me, and I stood up rather suddenly, defensively. Ms. Wicke moved to pacify me with a hand on my shoulder, but within me arose an irrational dislike of the man before me, and his haughty, shitty face. With all people I had met in this strange new land, I had done my best to at least feign some form of respect, if not for the kindness they had shown me, then for any sort of assistance at all. But, this time, I just couldn’t do it. I knew that I wasn’t exactly in shape for a fight, so I contented myself to glare at Faba. “Yeah, me. What’s it got to do with you?”

“You’re an interesting person, you know that? People would kill to be you.” Faba laughed humorlessly. “But none of that matters to me. You’re insignificant before me.”

Faba then shoved past me and Wicke, deliberately elbowing my gut. I gasped harshly for breath and Wicke opened her mouth to scold Faba, but I waved Wicke’s concern away. As he vanished down the garden path, Wicke and I turned the other way, the metal of Aether clinking pleasantly under our feet.

I could tell from her expression and the mechanical way she walked that Ms. Wicke didn’t want to talk about Faba, so I didn’t. But I burned with questions deep inside my chest.

_People would kill to be you._

To be me? A nameless individual, thrown into a strange world with no recollection of the past? A person grasping around in the dark for any sign of identity?

I shook my head. He obviously did not know what he was talking about.

But, back to the real world. Wicke and I had reached the end of the garden path. From afar, the great mansion looked large, yes, but up close it was staggering. The front door looked almost twice my height, and the marble steps leading up to it had perfectly cut, sharp edges, the surfaces polished so smooth that I questioned if anyone had ever actually stepped on them.

I walked forward towards the door, but Wicke hadn’t joined me. I turned around in surprise; her expression surprised me even more. Not just sour from the encounter with Faba, her face had turned a pale, ghostly pinkish white. I opened my mouth to ask her if she was ok, but she hurried over and pulled me away from the front door, placing a finger over my lips.

Then, I heard it.

“You insolent child! You will do as I say!”

Pause.

“None of your arguments! You do not deserve to disagree. You _will_ participate in the next project and that is final. It’s time that you finally made yourself useful. Now, out of my sight, unsightly _thing_.”

Slam.

There, slouched over the perfect marble steps, stood...

Gladion?

The sun reflected dazzlingly off of Gladion’s blond hair. He looked around nervously, but I didn’t really think he actually saw anything or paid attention to his surroundings at all, given that he missed me and Wicke standing not far from the door. After a few seconds of heavy breathing, he ran down the tree-lined way. However, before he disappeared out of sight, I caught sight of his scarlet red face. I couldn’t quite place it as fury or embarrassment.

“Uhh... I think the President should be ready to meet with you,” Wicke said hastily. She nodded towards the door, meaning for me to step forth.

Obviously, she was trying to get my mind off Gladion’s sudden appearance. I couldn’t flaw her for wanting to deflect unwanted attention, and so I decided not to pry for the sake of his privacy. But, of course, my curiosity burned onward.

Now beyond the sterile world of my white room, in just mere moments, intrigue had piled up so high I felt nearly suffocated by it. I, for the first time-- in recent recollection, of course-- felt a trepidation caused not by my lack of knowledge but indeed my new knowledge. I tucked my hands behind my back and weaved them together to prevent Ms. Wicke from noticing their shakiness.

I stood there dumbly, waiting for her to grab my arm and lead me. But, suddenly she had no intention of doing things for me, not anymore. Maybe she had her own reservations about meeting the President? Not hurrying even in the slightest, she waited for me to take the first step.

So I did.

Releasing my right hand from my left’s vice grip, I held out my trembling hand and knocked loudly on the door.

At my touch, the door swung open effortlessly, despite its grand size, to reveal a large white atrium. Elegant black columns flanked symmetrical stairways, and golden chandeliers glistened with crystal. I gasped softly, amazed that the inside could be more grand and imperial than the outside. And, even yet, there stood, surpassing the rest of the room, something, someone, that simply took the breath away.

“Mrs. President!”

With not a single strand out of place and set exquisitely in a long blonde sheet, her hair perfectly cascaded over her shoulders and past her waist. Matching the color of the verdant leaves outside in the tropic sun, her eyes pierced into me. She wore a sparkling white dress, an artful black jewel set in the center, glimmering with a cold blue luster.

Suddenly self-conscious, demeaned under her stare, I locked my knees and straightened my back, hoping that my nerves didn’t make my slightly pursed lips tremble too much. But then, reading my discomfort, she smiled welcomingly and strided over to the entrance to greet us.

“Ah, Ms. Wicke.” She offered a hand to Ms. Wicke, who shook it eagerly and then hurried to stand behind me. I flicked my eyes to look at her, but she had already disappeared from my peripheral vision.

“And you must be?”

I stared at the hand proffered to me. The question expected a name, didn’t it? A terrible chill overcame me, freezing even my bones, and I stood as stiff as though I had transformed into one of the black pillars of the room. I could not speak.

“This is the girl we found on the shore of Ula’Ula, President,” Ms. Wicke said hastily from behind me. Relieved at her sudden interjection, I nodded quickly to indicate that I had no more to say on the subject than what Wicke had provided.

The President knowingly smiled, “Ah, I see. I’m glad to hear of your recovery. I am Lusamine, the president of the Aether Foundation. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Y-- uh, yes, Mrs. President.” I grasped the hand, still outstretched to me, and shook it with as much enthusiasm as my defrosting limbs, as heavy and unbending as bars of steel, could manage. “Thank for your generosity.”

“Oh, please sweet girl, call me Lusamine. And think nothing of the rest-- it was the least I could do for someone left all alone in the world. I do not wish to see people or Pokemon harmed-- I am duty bound to give them all my love.” She positively beamed as she said this.

Partially astounded by the beauty imparted in her face by such strong passion, and partially unsure as to how to respond to said passion, I opted to nod emphatically in a manner that hopefully could pass as respectful, stuttering again: “Um, yes-- yes, Lusamine, ma’am.”

“Dear me, you must drop the ma’am too. But, in time, I suppose.” She flashed a brief smile, her perfectly white teeth contrasting strongly with her fiercely red lips. Then, her expression switched from jovial to business-like, with my feeling of inferiority returning just as swiftly.

“I have heard from Ms. Wicke here, and my other associates who have helped you, that you possess no memory beyond the knowledge that you are a Pokemon trainer, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m afraid there is not much else we can do to help you reclaim your memories. Dr. Faba, who was called to the scene after Captain Acerola found you, brought you to our labs. Your injuries seemed rather severe, so we opted not to transport you much farther from Ula’Ula Island and brought you here. The only thing on your person was your Pokeballs. Since then, Dr. Faba has also utilized Aether machinery to scour the nearby ocean floor for your other belongings and possibly some form of identification. Unfortunately, we have been unable to find anything.

“Your Pokemon have been thoroughly examined as a precautionary measure, but they seem to be doing well. We have also contacted Alolan police for an inquiry into your identity, but it doesn’t seem like they have the resources to conduct an investigation right now.” She paused and smiled bitterly. “They are rather busy dealing with a new group of ruffian thieves, so I’ve heard.”

I stood, numbly processing all of this information. While Lusamine had laid it out quite plainly, somehow everything she said still felt surreal. Though I vaguely remembered that Wicke had said one time or another I had been found collapsed on the beach, hearing it now... I could not imagine the person that Lusamine was talking about was me. But it was.

“I understand that this must all be very shocking to you,” Lusamine said, as though she sensed my disbelief. “I cannot even begin to think of your struggles. As long as you remain with us... That is to say, the Aether Foundation will be glad to assist you for as long as you need.”

She knew as well as I that she had briefly tried to say a name in that pause because I watched the sudden realization of the mistake dance across her face and vanish. Rhythmically, it would have made sense, and I could not blame her, but, in the end, it just made my insides squirm. Again, I nodded respectfully. “Thank you, Lusamine.”

“It’s the least I could do, darling. Though, if I might ask a favor of you?”

I blinked. While I supposed that this was to be anticipated, my heart leapt at the chance to repay Lusamine and Aether. After all, I had almost begun to doubt why she even bothered to use, as she put it, so many resources to take care of me and help me. Now I could push those doubts aside.

“Of-- of course.”

Lusamine grinned widely again, baring her white teeth before snapping her fingers imperiously. “Well, at Aether, few of our employees are Pokemon trainers; Pokemon battling is forbidden in this paradise. But we have a need for strong Pokemon trainers in a new experiment of Aether. Since you mentioned that you recall being a trainer, I would ask that you, please, assist in our upcoming experiment. It is nothing too strenuous, but I doubt that it would be manageable by anyone other than a skilled trainer.”

Before I had even thought about it for more than half a second, the words fell out of my mouth: “Yes, I can do that.”

Now, instead of just a smile, Lusamine glowed. I saw the light dance off the glitter in her lipstick and eyeshadow. My writhing guts relaxed, seeing her relief and happiness, feeling my own guilt and doubt fade away a little.

“Silly me. I should return your Pokemon to you if I’m asking you to battle.”

Turning her back on me, Lusamine strode through the black doors across the room, which parted just as she approached them, effortlessly swinging open as though she had swatted them aside like flies. It only emphasized her regality.

In her absence, I decided to take in the room even more. Now that I stood in the center of it, I realized that the originally palatial room suddenly looked diminished. It seemed no smaller in size, but I noticed the perception of spacious grandeur came mostly from the sheer emptiness of the room. Outside of the columns and staircases, the room was deserted. I couldn’t detect even a speck of dust on the white floors, much less furniture. I remembered, with a bittersweet smile, my sterile room in the bowels of Aether Paradise.

The only thing in the room not white, black or gold happened to be a large portrait hung over the black doors through which Lusamine had just disappeared. I supposed she would be the type to commission a family portrait, as I surmised that it was one. Two adults, one of them mostly certainly a younger Lusamine, flanked two children, a boy and a girl, seated in cushy, tufted red chairs adorned with shiny, golden armrests and buttons. The person I only assumed could be her husband had his hand on the shoulder of the young girl, who radiated life and exuberance even from this still image. In my mind, I imagined the little girl bouncing excitedly on the chair and her father calmly steadying her immense energy.

On the other side, the young boy sat stiffly, the exact opposite of his sister. His hands laid in his lap, placed carefully one over the other, covered with silk gloves. His stunningly perfect poise, I could tell, had certainly come from his mother, because I had, with a pang of understanding, detected that haughty, striking air that now emanated from the piercingly green eyes of that boy...

Jolted by Lusamine’s once again royal entrance through the magical doors, I dropped my gaze from the painted, younger mother to the one forcefully striding towards me with a box of Pokeballs.

“Here you are, darling. I’ll send word to you when we require your aid. If you’ll excuse me, I need to meet with several research representatives.”

Lusamine nodded and turned away as soon as the box had landed into my outstretched arms. I didn’t watch as she made her exit this time, far too focused on the box of assorted capsules in my hands. I struggled to recall what all of the different colorations even represented. I saw the bright red ones around Wicke’s waist on occasion, but in my box, more of them were blue and black and pink. I winced as I dredged up the names from some nebula of my brain: Great, Ultra and Heal.

“Um, well, let’s go outside, shall we?” I had almost forgotten that Wicke had stood behind me the whole time. Quite relieved to leave, I followed Wicke out of the grand black doors, out of this deceivingly empty room, out of sight of that portrait and its critical gaze.

As soon as the door of Lusamine's mansion shuddered shut behind me, I bounded down the stairs and excitedly grabbed a Pokeball from the box. The rush of familiarity in the motion delighted me as I effortlessly swung my arm back and threw the ball into the air.

“Come on out!”

Wicke and I watched as a giant, green snake slid from the red light, coiling around several times before holding its head high and giving out a cry of joy.

Overwhelmed by a nostalgic surge of happiness, I dropped the box onto the ground and bounded towards Serperior, who received my excitement with a gentle nuzzle on my head. Leaning against Serperior’s sleek, muscular body, watching the noble serpent familiarly groom me, its scarlet eyes softening from their usual cold defiance, I waited...

And I waited.

But I waited in vain.

I had anticipated a sudden blast of memories in my face, but an empty vagueness continued for an interminable minute-- it hadn’t worked, I had remembered nothing. That realization tore apart my paper-thin hope with all the force needed to shred metal. The dumb stupor from before swallowed me once more, and I struggled to stay standing. My hands, devoid of feeling, fumbled to stabilize my weak body against Serperior’s coils. All sense of power and control seemed to have flowed out of my body like water flowing inevitably from cupped palms. I sat like a stuffed doll, aware and yet so powerless.

Wicke, formerly focused on picking up the Pokeballs that had scattered after I dropped the box, turned her gaze up from the white metal floor to first take a quick glance at how I fared, then stare intently at my blank eyes, brimming with tears I barely acknowledged until--

“Dear, are you alright? Dear?”

Abandoning the box just as swiftly as I did, she hurried to my side, only slightly delayed by Serperior’s protectiveness when it cried defensively in her face. She placed her hands on my shoulders and shook me gently, continuing to stare into my eyes, but my body had sunk into such despondency that I could barely process anything. Out of sync with Wicke’s mouth, words reached me through the haze:

“Can you hear me? Did you remember something? Dear, can you hear me?”

I shook my head laboriously, just once, back and forth. It did not satisfy Wicke, evidently, because I had not exactly answered any of her questions. She brushed my hair away from my forehead, wiped away sweat and checked me for a fever. She then pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed at the waterfalls of tears streaming down my cheeks.

Then, abruptly, and quite painfully, I snapped back into my body, overtaken by a sudden flood of sensations. Stingingly aware of pain pulsating everywhere in my body and bitterly wishing for the numbness to return, I mustered just enough strength to brush Wicke’s hands off me and stand tall, defiant. Tasting salty tears on my lips, I said, firmly, “I’m fine, Ms. Wicke. Just a bit shocked.”

“I’m glad you’re not hurt, dearie.”

“Me too, Ms. Wicke, me too.”

...But I’m not healed.


	3. Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I thought I would never finish this. I know I said it would take a bit of a wait for the next part... Please enjoy.

The door slid open.

“Ah, miss, I see you’re prepared. Shall we go now?”

The stranger greeting me at my ward wore the same white, tight-fitting clothing delivered to me a couple days ago. The card attached to it, bearing a signature from President Lusamine herself, had instructed me to wear it in preparation for the experiment. Dutifully I had donned the outfit, examining my strange appearance in the mirror-like cabinets of the room and curiously digging into each of the many pockets along the sides of the pants.

I nodded quickly to acknowledge the stranger and retrieved my Pokeballs from the box underneath my bed. He seemed nice enough, but I could feel him burning a hole in the back of my head as I knelt down and pressed each capsule into the holes along the belt.

Once I had walked up to the door, the man nodded curtly and gestured for me to follow behind him. Thrilled just to have a chance to leave my solitary room for the first time since I had gone to see the President, I hurried out into the hallway.

However, he only led me a short distance along the metal passageway, stopping in front of a door to what I assumed would be a similar room to my own. He raised a hand to the sensor beside the door, and it slid open effortlessly.

“Master Gladion and Dr. Faba are waiting for you in here. Good luck with the experiment.”

I smiled in thanks, but he did not smile back. I don’t think he even saw my smile, as almost immediately after he finished talking he turned and continued walking down the hallway until he vanished.

“You’re late.”

Recognizing that cruel, mocking voice, I grimly turned my head towards the room and saw Faba standing in the doorway wearing unusual green goggles but his usual smirk.

“I apologize.” I tried my best to sound sincere.

Clearly not convinced, he scoffed and beckoned me towards him imperiously, the automatic door sliding shut behind us as I crossed the threshold.

As I had imagined, the room looked quite similar to the one I stayed in. However, inside being completely empty, all around the perimeter were control panels covered in monitors, buttons, levers, dials and more, although I could not discern their purposes. My eyes immediately fixed upon one monitor just near the door, which displayed a new message in red: “Space Aura detected.”

“Oh, it’s you.”

Shamefully looking away from the screen, I noticed Gladion standing some distance away in the center of the room. He wore the same white outfit as Faba and I, but, without really thinking, I immediately decided that his black jacket suited him far better. He had his hand on the muzzle of a strange, unfamiliar Pokemon I did not recognize, although I suppose there would be many Pokemon I would not know in this new region. In the back of my head, however, I wondered where a Pokemon like that would live, as I noted its fishtail, talon-like front claws, and furred back paws.

I then noticed that one of the same Pokemon accompanied Faba as well, although I could tell instantly that it regarded Faba with much more fear and disdain. While Gladion absentmindedly pet the one under his care, Faba stood several feet away from it and refused to acknowledge its presence.

I could not help my curiosity. “What Pokemon is that?”

“It’s--”

“There’s no need to give her that information, Gladion.”

Looking from one to the other and seeing Faba’s pointed, meaningful glare, I tried to hide the squirming feeling of unease starting to make its way into my chest. Faba then turned to me with that same disdainful expression he had worn before.

“We don’t really need you here, girl. You’re only here as our backup, got it?”

Pursing my lips to prevent myself from responding in kind, I only nodded to signal my understanding and stepped to the back of the room, my hand brushing against the row of Pokeballs at my waist.

“Hey, you.” Gladion stared at me and, with a jerk of his head, gestured for me to come towards him. “We only have one Pokemon each, so you need to be up front.”

I looked away from him, a self-deprecating smile on my lips, but I did as he asked and shuffled to the front of the room, right in front of a device larger than the rest. It looked like a large glass cabinet and reached from floor to ceiling, but the interior held a shimmering, constantly shifting gas, slowly changing color from purple to blue to yellow. The nebulous depths of that swirling substance enchanted me, and, enthralled, I tentatively pressed my fingers against the cold, smooth glass.

_But you... Who are you?_

“Ah!”

That-- voice--

“Hey, you ok?”

I heard his voice from somewhere above me as I pressed my hand to my forehead, covered in cold sweat, feeling my face scrunched up against the pain. Though I could think about nothing except that voice I had just heard, for some reason I could no longer remember what it had said, or what it sounded like...

“Oh boohoo, did you remember something, girl?”

I lifted my head ever so slightly and turned it towards Faba.

“You wish.”

“Faba, I officially order you to stop calling her girl. She is a member of this mission’s team.”

Gladion had spoken with such authority and righteous dignity in his voice that it jolted all thought of the voice out of my head. I stood up and turned to see him standing completely straight-backed, stiffly even, and bearing down on Faba with such a horrendous expression on his face; it looked completely calm, but anyone could plainly tell that rage hidden right behind those hardened eyes and ever so slightly raised eyebrows. He had stopped petting his companion, now resting a white fist on its sleek, glossy back.

Clearly cowed, Faba nodded mutely, threw a quick but scathing glance at me, and went back to examining the monitors.

“Um, uh... thanks..” I murmured under my breath so Faba wouldn’t hear, but when I looked up nervously to try and meet Gladion’s eyes, he had looked away.

However, suddenly, a harsh female voice rang out.

“Do not act so childish, Gladion.”

I looked up and cast my eyes around the room, searching for the source of this fourth voice. I recognized it, but I had never heard the terrible, biting, demeaning tone that inflected it.

But, I realized, I had.

That day when I had seen Gladion run out of the manor atop Aether Paradise... I had remembered this voice from that day.

The voice of a mother who hates her son.

“...Yes, President.”

“President, forgive us. The late arrival of the trainer has caused a slight delay. But I will have all systems up and running shortly.”

I turned to realize that Faba had spoken to an image of Lusamine broadcasted onto one of the monitors nearby and that the sound issued from the speakers in each corner of the room, which filled the whole laboratory with her voice.

“Faba, I will not tolerate failure on this mission. Do you understand?”

“Yes, President.”

“Young one.”

I took that address to mean me and choked slightly. “Ah, um, yes, Mrs. Lusamine?”

“No need to look so concerned.” On the screen, I saw her move to cover a small chuckle with her hand. “You are voluntarily providing your assistance to our experiment, and anything you contribute can only benefit our research. I want you to just do your best, alright?”

“Yes, Lusamine, ma’am.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I could see Gladion staring at me, but I could not read his expression, and he huffed and turned his back as soon as he noticed me looking. I focused again on the Lusamine on the screen. She smiled as if she had read my mind and proceeded onward.

“Our research team is about to encounter an extremely rare and powerful Pokemon for the first time in recorded history. I want you to protect them as they gather data... and assist them if there appears an opportunity to capture the Pokemon. Do you understand?”

I nodded, my mind already racing at the thought of battling with such an opponent. “Yes ma’am.”

“Good, good... Now, let us begin. Faba, are the systems ready?”

“Yes, President.”

“Then, begin.”

Faba immediately pressed a red button beside the image of Lusamine. As he did so, a series of ominous beeps and whirs sputtered to life through the room. Screens changed color, indicator lights flashed, and the needles of dials turned towards danger levels. The gas within the glass cabinet grew agitated, shifting faster and faster, and a distant light began to flash from within its depths.

“On your command, Doctor.”

Gladion shifted into a battle stance, his hand still on the muzzle of his companion and his eyes pinned on the cabinet full of swirling gas. Understanding his cue, I glided my fingertips along the row of Pokeballs on my belt, a gesture so thrillingly familiar, and threw out a Pokeball.

“Eelektross!”

He appeared and landed on the ground with a slight thud, the yellow spots on his dark blue body flashing with electricity. I smirked as Gladion’s eyes grew wide with surprise; so, I wasn’t the only one encountering a Pokemon for the first time.

But, just then, the cacophonic chaos of the computers reached its climax, and the room glowed a dangerous red as all systems tried to warn us of the threat that we could already perceive. I inhaled deeply, planted myself firmly on the ground, and prepared myself for the incoming battle.

“It will open in three seconds!”

I felt the floor tremble as sounds of whining, straining metal echoed from outside the laboratory.

“Three!”

The light within the cabinet started to flash blindingly.

“Two!”

The glass of the cabinet cracked.

“One!”

No-- It wasn’t the glass--

“Here it comes!”

The portal, which shattered the fabric of space itself, glowed the same purple and blue colors as the gas from earlier, and the shining light had become a tunnel, reaching into the unknown and spilling into our own plane in a spiderweb of flickering fractures.

But, then, I saw it.

And my trepidation became dread.

Ethereal at first, as if slowly materializing into existence, the floating Pokemon descended from within the piercing white light, extended its ghostly pale tentacles and let out an otherworldly scream of rage with the force of a sonic boom.

I winced and covered my ears, but before I had time to even recover, it rushed towards me.

“Eelektross, Thunderbolt, quick!”

A bolt of electricity flew from Eelektross’s jaws, yet the Pokemon only flinched for mere moments after the attack connected. I seized on that moment of distraction to run out of the way of its charge.

“Type:Full!”

As I turned back, I saw Gladion direct Type:Full to attack the unknown Pokemon. The beast’s front talons glimmered with a silvery glow, raking across the strange Pokemon’s bell-like head. Once again, it shrieked with immense power, striking back with a tentacle laced with purple poison.

I only heard Type:Full hit the back wall of the laboratory with a heavy crash, knowing it would be foolish to take my eyes off our dangerous opponent.

“Superpower!”

Levitating over the floor, Eelektross glided easily through the chaos of the battle and rushed down the unknown creature, bringing down his two fins for a powerful strike. Yet, somehow, the Pokemon seemed to anticipate it and shifted out of the way with ease. Once again, it lashed out with its poisonous tentacles, and I suddenly realized--

“Discharge, now!”

The yellow spots on Eelektross’s body flashed again, white-hot electricity pouring from every inch of his body. The tentacles withdrew instantly, each one quivering furiously as the poison receded back into the heart of the strange Pokemon.

But then I understood why it had stopped.

Large black stones had started to appear around the Pokemon, and before I could even speak a command, the stones converged--

On me.

The first one hit me right in the stomach, and I could not stifle a cry of pain. It continued to press against my body, trying to knock me off my feet. The second one struck my arm, and then my hip.

But, as I lurched forward and the pain started to cloud my sight, I heard the sound of shattering stone, of dust falling to the floor.

I looked up.

The stones flew relentlessly through the air now, pelting down like a hailstorm. I watched as Type:Full sliced apart the stones with the gray crest on its head, cleaving them with the ease of chopping wood. Eelektross, too, smashed apart stones seemingly with every swing of his fins. I smiled weakly.

_You’re under my protection._

Why did I say that?

Did I say that?

The stone twisted in my gut.

I choked out a gasp of pain, but the attack hadn’t finished. With a sudden surge of force, the psychically guided rock pushed me back so hard that my feet lost contact with the floor.

I only heard myself hit the wall at the back of the lab with a bone-shuddering thud. I heard the slam of my skull on steel. My vision went black.

“Faba, do something, goddamnit!”

“Fine. Beast Killer, Double-Edge!”

I felt gentle hands hold me. They removed the stone from my chest and laid me down on the floor.

“You ok?”

I blinked. Although the image formed slowly from the darkness, I could clearly make out Gladion’s worry.

“Ha, ah-- that was nothing.” I rolled over and slammed my fist into the ground, pushing myself up onto one knee. Not really nothing, but I guessed the adrenaline had spoken for me.

“Good then.” Abandoning his concerned look, he turned back to the battle.

Faba’s Type:Full had entered the battle now, relentlessly pursuing the alien Pokemon with an endless barrage of slashes and kicks.

But, anyone could obviously tell that the alien Pokemon had no interest in fighting the Type:Full. It drifted past the attacks with no real urgency, floating about and occasionally launching another flurry of Power Gem to deflect the attacks.

“Eelektross! Can you still fight?”

I looked over at my partner, who had waited at the edge of the battle for my command. He cried out gutturally, and everything inhuman in that sound made perfect sense to me.

Just like old times then.

“Outrage!”

Coated in a blazing draconic aura, he rushed forth into the battle. Preoccupied with dodging, the alien Pokemon did not notice Eelektross until he had already begun to punch and pummel its head. It roared in pain again, the sound splitting my eardrums, but even that could not stop the onslaught.

“Now!”

I whipped my head around to see Faba throw a bright blue ball, not unlike a Pokeball but at the same time definitely not a Pokeball. I turned back to the strange Pokemon, realizing both Type:Fulls had also begun their own assaults. Under the pressure of three different attackers, the alien Pokemon had no opportunity for escape.

The ball made contact with the alien creature’s head, and at last we had the surest sign that it indeed was a Pokemon as it turned into red light that streamed into the capsule.

But it couldn’t entertain that pretense for too long.

It broke free from the Pokeball with renewed rage, shrieking even more fiercely than before. The room distorted, filled with a haziness like heat waves under the sun. The gravity in the room increased so violently that I could feel its weight pressing down onto each individual cell of my body.

The portal stretched forward from the wall into the center of the room and swallowed up the creature, both vanishing with a flash of light and an almighty release of tension.

I bent over wheezing as the adrenaline drained from me, unsure of how to function now that the terrible aura of that Pokemon had gone. Eelektross slunk back to my side, looking for a congratulatory pat that I gave without looking up from the floor.

“You failed.” The President’s voice echoed from all sides, an unavoidable death sentence. I listened to Faba struggle to piece together a response.

“P-- President... We were not-- not anticipating the-- that the Beast could uh-- escape... I apologize for our-- my-- oversight--”

“That’s enough, Dr. Faba. You know what to do now.”

“Yes, President.”

I raised my head to see if I needed to do anything more, and, if I was being honest, to see how Gladion was taking this. But, as soon as I looked up, I heard something whistle through wind and prick the back of my neck.

The world swayed before me, or maybe I swayed? My vision once again became hazy, and my body once again felt heavy, but I knew this time it was different. I fought with all my might to stay standing even as darkness encroached at the edges of my mind.

“What did you do to her?!”

“Gladion, this is all part of the plan, do not panic--”

“To hell with that! What did you do?”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t hurt her at all.”

For the second time that day, gentle hands held me. He had caught me. Tears hit my forehead. Through the nothingness, I distinctly noticed that my body didn’t react at all.

He was close. He was shouting. Why did he sound so far away?

“Don’t close your eyes!”

_Ah… I see. You really are a hero, too..._


	4. Me

Warm sunlight filled the room, filtering through the curtains and casting a huge square of light on my bed. I buried my face into my pillow to try and block it out, but the light infiltrated the folds of the sheets and blankets, chasing me, prodding me awake.

I heard the sounds of a commotion downstairs. It seemed like my mother was having the usual difficulties in the morning as she tried to wake up and make breakfast at the same time.

But, that didn’t seem right. Several voices rang from downstairs, and I heard the door closing. My curiosity getting the better of me, I grumbled, sat up in bed and went to get dressed. Stuffing my arm into a hamper full of folded, fresh laundry, I haphazardly threw on something and hurried downstairs, wiping the sleep out of my eyes as I landed at the bottom of the stairs. 

“Oh, good morning!” 

Standing in the kitchen, my mother and two other people smiled at me. A girl with bright blonde hair hurried over and hugged me tightly, and I laughed as I felt my ribs near crack under her excitement. “Come on,” I huffed, trying to hide my smile, “you could at least wait for me to wake up.” 

“But today is such an important day!” she said. Finally releasing me so she could admire my fantastically disheveled look, I saw another person standing behind her.

“I don’t know if saying that you look like you just rolled out of bed is a compliment or an insult.” He smiled as you do when you want to laugh at your own joke, and an embarrassed flush crept up my face. I hastened to comb my hair through with my fingers, but my mother foisted a brush onto me before I could even start.

I started to speak as well, but again she cut me off, “Dear, the professor has already sent over three Pokemon. Do hurry up-- I think your friends are just about ready to get on without you!” She laughed and then turned to the two guests, “I hope I can interest you in some breakfast while you wait for my lazy daughter?” 

“No, I’m fine, Mrs.--”

“Of course!”

I chuckled as I sat down at the table with my mom and friends, brushing through my long sheet of brown hair and trying to keep up with the furious conversation between the other two. 

“This is so so exciting! We get to travel all across the region!”

“I’m more excited to start battling. I’ve always wanted to.” 

“But don’t you want to like, go see the world?” 

“That just naturally goes along with the experience. That’s not the point of the journey. But I am excited for it nonetheless.”

I couldn’t help but smile to see them so ready for the future. I wondered if I could take up the challenge as readily as the two of them, but I knew that I could not back down from it now.

“Hey, what about you, ▮◖◽▶◐▽●...”

The sunlight streaming through the windows vanished, but it had not gotten dark. The air froze, turning into slabs of cold, hardened slate. The voices and chatter of my friends and mother turned into excruciatingly loud static, grating at my ears until I simply had to cover them, and even then it did nothing to block out the sound pounding inside my head, resonating through my entire body. 

Ghoulish cries repeated over and over again, distorting the familiar sounds of home into nightmarish screams and wails drawing ever closer. I fell onto my knees, not knowing when I had ever been standing, given that I had just sat in my warm kitchen moments earlier. The freezing, damp floor caused shivers to flow through my body, and I tried, but failed, to see past the blinding pain to understand my predicament. 

At first, when I opened my eyes, I thought I had not really opened them at all. Blackness still reigned, and odd flashes of colors danced across my eyes as the pain gradually drove me more and more toward delirium. But then I continued to stare into the black, and both the pain and the ink dispersed. 

A strange, alien horizon stretched across my sight, with outcroppings of iridescent stone criss-crossing the sky like crystalline tree branches. The only light in existence seemed to pulsate from these rocks, a sickly, weak blue glow that made my skin look dreadfully, deathly white. From some places, tarrish black fluid oozed in unsightly globs, fizzing and bubbling whenever it became exposed to the light of the stones, expelling out blue flaming geists that sputtered into the air and died within mere moments. 

I then realized that said dark fluid was what had made the floor so damp, so I nervously tried to wipe it off my body, only to smear the unpleasantly viscous liquid over my legs and hands. Like before, I noted how cold the strange substance felt on my skin, though the chill seemed to seep deeper than that, through the skin and muscle, down to my bones. Even more terrified, I hurried into a darker area not filled with the glittering stones, praying that I would not burst into flames.

But I had unwittingly joined someone-- something-- else in that corner.

I didn’t spare any thought considering what the thing was. All I knew was that I should run from it. 

I ran as fast as I could, not wanting to look back. This hell seemed to go on forever, which worked out great for me, because I knew that whatever was behind me would chase me forever too. Everything looked the same, the same black crags, the same purple and blue glow, the same looming darkness.

But, even after an eternity of running, long after my body should have begged for me to stop, my heart pumping sheer terror through my veins pushed me onwards. I was afraid, and nothing else. 

I could hear them screaming, crying, hungering. 

Then the horizon disappeared. The darkness up ahead became a stone wall, and I skidded to a stop through the tarrish coating on the floor. All of my fear had not conditioned me for the inevitable truth that I could not run forever... that they would catch up. 

I didn’t want to turn around, but I could feel their oppressive presence behind me, so close that I thought I could hear frothing saliva dripping from their open mouths. 

This was the end. My end. And I was too cowardly to even face it. 

I cried. The nightmares cried. 

The nightmares cried? 

The world changed. I felt a light so blessed I could never have imagined it wash over me, carrying with it all the pleasant feelings of the world— flowing water, sweet breezes, fluffy blankets, tight hugs— reminding me of purity and hope and humanity. Feeling no anxiety about the painful implications, I opened my eyes to see if I had gone to heaven. 

But I hadn’t. 

Instead, a swirling portal, a tunnel that reached through the wall that had doomed me, had opened, welcoming me into its depths. I had never leapt so swiftly in the arms of deliverance.

I had escaped.

I was me again. 

I was falling.

The bliss disappeared. I descended endlessly through a sky of hazy images. Pidoves took flight, disturbed by an opened door. The smell of moss and rotting wood filled the air. Performers danced around me in the city. Desert sands blew in my eyes. A tower in a lake pierced the heavens. The grim castle broke free from the earth. A distant face smiled at me. 

We reached the top of the ferris wheel. 

_Well then... Farewell!_

My hot tears must have reached the bottom before me.

~~

Dense fog swirled. Silence reigned. No distinct up or down existed. Fog above, fog below, fog all around. The cold droplets coated my skin, soaking me until my bones filled with ice. Suspended in nothingness, I could barely move, but I barely thought about moving. I only watched the mist swirl and dance. 

Suddenly, through the interminable silence, I heard a sigh, a long sigh that blew through the mist and agitated the slow, artful spirals into angry clouds. Then, as soon as it echoed into the emptiness, the fog settled back into calm, undulating waves hanging, suspended, in the air. Yet, now, as if the sigh had also agitated something inside of me, the silence angered me. I wanted sound. 

Thud. 

The sound of hitting glass. The fog all but blew away, rushing away from the sound somewhere in the distance, revealing the white imprint of an opened hand hovering on the horizon and a pair of forlorn green eyes seeing nothing, but then the mist billowed back to obscure my view once again. A low voice pierced through the haze, as clear as if whispered in my ear.

“I-- I... I knew it. It had to be you. 

“I’m sorry. You’ve suffered so much.”

I opened my mouth, but the water droplets turned into ice, freezing on my open lips, coating my tongue with frost, choking my response away. The sorrow in the voice begged for a forgiveness that could never exist. But, through the regret, the voice felt familiar, a defiant warmth in the cold, empty haze. 

Then, as if the haze knew, it became even colder in retaliation. The warmth vanished, leaving no trace behind, and on the tossing waves of gray fog it floated away. I tried to remember why the voice was so familiar, but I had already forgotten the words it had spoken. 

Fog above, fog below, fog all around.

Cold.

I’m sorry, too.

~~

I gasped. 

The gentle gurgling sound of bubbles floating up to the surface surrounded me. I took a deep, stabilizing breath, the sound of pressurized air being released, rushing forth, liquidly distorted. My entire body exhaled, and my heavy eyelids grew even heavier. 

“She’s awake.” 

The voice echoed strangely towards me. It must have come from outside. 

“Ah, well then, good morning! Must have been a nice long sleep, right?” 

“Not like she can hear you or anything. The ice has only just finished melting.” 

“Is that so? Really? I would’ve thought with technology this advanced--” 

“What?” 

“My bad, my bad. Don’t give me that look, come on!” 

“Tch, fine. I didn’t bring you here for nothing. So...

“She’s the one?” 

“Yeah, looks like it. She matches the description, or well-- close enough? You said she had brown hair when you met her?”

“Yes. Brown hair, blue eyes.”

“And that was three years ago?” 

“Yes. Three years ago.”

Something stirred inside of me. Something felt wrong. I took another shuddering breath, and the two voices stopped, as if waiting for me to say something. But then they continued on.

“How did you find her? According to our records with the International Police, she had already been missing for a whole year before that.”

“She-- she... I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Forgive me, but you’ll have to understand that seems very suspicious to me.”

“Well, we just... just found her.”

“Excuse me?”

“You can check our records from three years ago. There’s a report of an unconscious person transferred from Aether House to Aether Paradise for emergency medical treatment.”

“Mhmm, that there is. But then, how did Aether House find her?”

“She washed up on the beach. No memories, no identification.” 

“Well, you don’t say?”

“That’s the truth.”

“Come on, I don’t mean to berate you about this, but that explanation is just, I just can’t accept--” 

“Does the term Ultra Beast mean anything to you?”

“What? How do you know about--” 

“Well, does it?” 

“...Yes. So you mean to say she’s... she’s one of...” 

“Yes. She is a Faller.”

Just then, I realized that something about my surroundings had changed. The top of my head no longer felt water flowing through strands of hair, but instead a cold emptiness worming itself into all available space. That nothingness snaked down my body, prickling my skin with an unfamiliar feeling of dryness. My body grew heavier, and heavier, until-- 

I distinctly felt my stiff legs crumple under my weight, like matchsticks broken underneath me, and the ground rose up to meet me. Reverberations of metal rang through my bones. Droplets of water slid down my skin, pooling around me as if they also wished that things could have stayed the way they were. Then, I heard more sounds of air pressure being released, then the clang of footsteps inside my prison. 

I felt... warmth. I had never realized anything could be so warm. 

“It seems like she’s still unconscious.”

Someone lifted me off of myself, cradling me like a mother cradles a child. I only noticed that certain bindings on my wrists and ankles had been released until after the weight of them disappeared. Their absence unsettled me; instead of feeling free from my tethers, I felt lost.

“Are you sure she’s ready for this?” 

“Well... we’ll see.” 

~~

“How is she?” 

“She’s stabilizing. We’re still running a couple tests, but everything seems normal so far.” 

“Thank goodness.”

“I mean, we have data on when we developed our cryonic technology. Nothing really should have happened to her, based on those trials, although we never tested it on a human.”

“Wicke.”

“Yes, Master Gladion?” 

“Do not tell her friends about what happened to her.” 

“Are you... are you sure?”

“This was a mistake from a long time ago. There's no use in telling them. We need to make it clear that we’re doing what is best for her.”

“I understand.” 

Both stopped talking for a long time, and the only sounds that could be heard were the slight beeps and whirs of medical machinery that made rooms like these so inhospitable to natural life. Every once in a while, however, I heard a sigh from somewhere, a sigh that spoke a thousand words in one breath, and I became captivated in anticipating it, readying myself so I could listen intently to everything it had to say. 

It spoke about the years that had passed, the tides of time that had slipped past me in the blink of an eye, that had forgotten to carry me along in the stream. It spoke about how the moments of conflict had overwhelmed the moments of happiness, and how a paradise had become purgatory. It spoke about the lonely nights, the dreams of growing stronger, the nightmares of losing it all. 

I believed that he had wanted to tell me these things. 

I clenched my fist around the sheets beneath me, breaking free of my daze like shattering the thinnest layer of melted sugar with a spider web of cracks. My body tried to sink back into its former state, but now I understood my own power, and so I resisted. Both hands clenched seemed like ample rebellion at the present.

“She--”

A hand pressed into my forehead, soft and plush, a hand that coddles you with every touch. I could see the face of its owner shining in my memory, and the prospect of seeing a world outside of memory drove me onward as I weakly flickered open my eyelids to see her biggest smile. 

“Good morning, honey.” 

“Good... morning...?” 

I didn’t sound confused because I didn’t understand-- though from the look on Wicke’s face she clearly thought so-- but because the feeling of my lips and my tongue and the muscles all along my face shattered even more of the immobilizing glaze over me. 

Just then, another person moved into my line of sight. I gasped, and Wicke gripped my shoulder to stabilize me. While Wicke hadn’t really changed... 

“You’re... Gla... dion?”

He stuffed his hands in the pocket of his black sweatshirt and looked down, his long hair falling over his eyes. His face had matured, and not just physically, because in his shadowed eyes I could discern emotions starting to peek through where they had once been hidden. 

“Yeah.”

The warm fuzziness of a smile rose in my chest, but my lips only twitched ever so slightly at the corners. He prepared himself to say something that looked like it left a bitter taste in his mouth, but then he bit it back and looked me straight in the eyes. 

“Welcome back, Hilda.”

~~

I watched the sparkling waves crash against the side of the boat. I had never been anywhere in Alola besides Aether Paradise, and I honestly couldn’t contain my excitement as the horizon sped towards me and the salty wind kissed my face. 

I ran my hand through my hair, wondering what my friends would say. I guess I should have thought more about what I would say, given the circumstances, but as I watched the pure white strands fall through my fingers, I thought it was not necessarily unreasonable to worry about it. 

Wicke said that was the one thing she had not anticipated about the cryogenic sleep, especially considering that I had come out almost perfectly preserved-- I hated thinking about it that way, but I had not yet found a better way to describe it. I hadn't aged at all in three years. For the first few days, I had spent a lot of time strolling inside the Pokemon-filled conservation gardens of Aether Paradise, getting used to the feeling of moving again, of just having a body. I swore that I heard my muscles crunching slightly. Maybe it was just me. 

Gladion and Looker explained everything to me. It took several sessions to explain my entire life story back to me on top of how I had ended up in a separate world from my own. A hero of truth? The Unovan Champion? A Faller who had passed through a wormhole into Ultra Space then into a different timeline? For a while, I couldn’t believe any of it. It made sense, and that’s what I hated about it. But even my fragments of memory supported their theory, and eventually, I had no choice but to accept my reality. 

I should wonder about what my friends would say. 

I mean, her friends.

It had taken me a bit of time to accept that I would probably never see my world again. Looker had told me that they had not yet figured out how to send someone back to the world they came from. Plus, he had also suddenly revealed to me that I was now under constant International Police surveillance so that I would never reveal the existence of Ultra Space to the general public.

_“I’m sorry Hilda. This is going to be really painful for you, but you understand why, right?”_

But understanding it didn’t make me feel any better. 

The vague shadow of land materialized on the horizon, and I felt my heart race even faster. I had never been very good at acting. 

_“Just tell them you lost your memory.”_

While that wasn’t entirely false, it made my insides lurch, and not because the boat had slowed to a stop at the docks of Hau’oli City. 

I saw them on the pier before they noticed me, I think. I watched them scan the ship’s deck, then squint at me, trying to discern whether it was me or not, then jump and yell and cry. 

My right foot was still on the gangplank when Bianca threw her arms around me. The warmth of her embrace overwhelmed me, and even though I had wanted to say something to them, my dry throat could make no noise. 

“Hildaaaa! Oh, I’m so happy you’re safe! I’ve missed you sooo much!” 

I pat her head and let her wail into my shoulder, unsure of what else I could do. I would never be able to imagine the pain they had experienced. 

Cheren smiled weakly at me, and I could tell that he wanted to make some remark about how all this was business as usual, but only to stop himself from crying too. I could see in his grave expression the reality of the years that we had all lost, the raw truth that things could not go back to how they were, even after I had come home. 

He fidgeted with his glasses just like he always did when he was about to say something from the heart, but he did not look aside as he said it. 

“Welcome home.” 

In that moment, I forgot all about Ultra Space and losing my memory and being frozen and every other awful thing that had happened to me. 

I forgot that these friendships weren’t mine. 

I hugged Bianca a bit tighter as Cheren wrapped his arms around us both.

“It’s good to be back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading Faller! I really hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
> 
> Please don't sue me for omitting this entire chapter in the tags (but now you know why). 
> 
> Also, stay tuned for a bonus epilogue in the near future.


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